Video Transcript: Are You Making a Difference? - Dr. Chip Bennett

Michael Cason and Chris Pedro both did incredible jobs while I was gone. They're fantastic. I love what God is doing. If you just joined the church the last couple of weeks, I'm sorry, now you've got me. You had some really good preaching. Now you've got to deal with me, but, but, but that being said, God is really doing some incredible things with our staff, and I think you can see their progress. It's just so, so rewarding. God is really good to our church.

At some point in your life when you were growing up, probably your mom, maybe your dad, maybe an uncle, maybe a friend, somebody, somebody had said something to you at school, or somebody had said something to you that hurt your feelings, and somebody came along and said this to you, or you heard something like this: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." And when they told you that, they were trying to help you, no doubt about it, they were trying to say, "Oh, don't listen to that. Don't let that get into your head. Don't let that affect you."

Not true. The idea behind it was noble, but the reality is, most of us know that that statement is not true. We know that words do hurt, and many of us can testify to that. We've been in maybe verbally abusive relationships, or we had verbally abusive situations growing up, or whatever, and those words, even when I said that, it just sinks in, because we all know that when we see a picture like this, so many of us can identify with that, or we see a picture like this—and listen, I didn't choose a lady to be yelling to a man. I know that's... I know people will. People always read into anything that I do. It's just the picture I found that I could use. So if you need to put a man there and a woman there, whatever you need to do to not be mad at me, do that. I'm just saying, we all know what that's like, and we all know that when we read something like this, that we go, "Yeah, that's probably really true."

But when we think about our words, and we think about the way that we use them, are we really using them for the right reasons? Because words are so important. I mean, God spoke the world into existence by using words. Think about that. The writer of Proverbs said that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." I mean, so powerful are words. And what's interesting is when you read the Gospel of Luke and Acts, because they're written together by the same author, when the Holy Spirit comes on anybody in the Gospel of Luke or the book of Acts, they speak words. They speak words of praise. They speak words of adoration, or they speak words telling people about Jesus. They speak the word of God with boldness.

I mean, really, in all sincerity, our mouths, as Christians, should be sanctified to be talking about the excellencies of the Lord and to be sharing the Gospel to everyone that we come in contact with. And that's just the... that's just the Bible. The Bible is very clear that we're to use our mouths to sing and to praise God, and then to use our mouths to testify about what Jesus has done for us and who he is, to go into all the world and make disciples, and all of those things that we're called to do to win the lost.

And so it's really easy, if you look at it, because it's super easy biblically, how we can judge how well our words are being used. And let's make this, let's make no bones about it. The church is very vocal. There's no question. The world knows the church speaks. There's no question about it. So we are using our words. How well are we doing? Well, the best way to ask the question, "How well are our words being used?" is to look at how well we're doing at winning the lost. How well are we doing at reaching the unchurched?

So Barna, which is a research group, a Christian group, asked thousands of pastors, "How well does your church reach unchurched people?" Well, in 2015, 13% of the pastors that were asked were able to say, "Our church does a really good job of reaching the unchurched." That should be shocking, because that means 87% can't say we're doing a great job. This is the shocking number. In 2023, it was 1%. But we're winning, right? No, we're not. We're not winning. We're losing.

Think about this. This is, this is, this is information that should shock you as a Christian. Somewhere between three to 5% of church growth is from conversion. That means that the churches in America that are growing primarily, 95 to 97% of the growth is people coming from other churches to their church. And then when they get mad at your church, they go to another church, you know. And it's like, I understand people will come from other churches. And I'm not trying to kick anybody out. I'm just trying to say, "Man, whatever it was that got you mad at the old church, whatever it was that got you upset at the old church, won't you go wash somebody's feet? Won't you go be a Christian?" And instead of coming in and bringing all that garbage in here the way you think we should be running the church, go back and make it right to where you were before.

Because I didn't put this together. I don't want Grace to be a church that people who don't want to be at other churches come to. I want us... I want our growth to be because we went out and we won souls, and people came to Jesus, and that's the way the growth should be in a church. And that doesn't mean if you're new here and you came from another church and you're mad at your pastor for what he said or whatever, it doesn't mean you can't come here, and it doesn't mean that we won't love you. But I hope you can hear my heart here. I'm not looking for somebody else's sheep. I'm looking to see people who don't know Jesus come to know Jesus and get baptized and those things, because that's what we're, that's what we're called to do.

Look at this. The largest Protestant denomination in America—not picking on them at all. It's just that they give this information, so we can look at the information. It's the Baptist Church. And if there's anything the Baptist Church has historically been known for, it's evangelism. I mean, it's like, that's, that's pretty, that's what they're known for, okay? The largest Protestant denomination in America, these are their stats: 43% of the churches had no converts or baptisms in a year. 43%. Zero. But we're using our voice. We're speaking up. Man, the church is vocal. Are we winning? No. 34% of those churches baptized one to five people in a year. That means 77% of the largest denomination in America saw zero to five baptisms in a year, and they're called Baptists. They want to baptize. Okay? And I'm just saying, and I'm not, I'm not picking on them at all. I'm just saying, if that's the data, it's sort of that we really need to pay attention.

And on top of that, three churches close every one church that's planted in America right now. That's the data. It's not like an opinion. That's the data. And what do we know when we drill down into the data? What do we know we drill down what's going on as a result? What's going on? Why is the church vocal? I see you all on social media. I mean, you have plenty to say. You use your words. I mean, we use our words as Christians.

We use our words at the workplace, but this is what we know. This is the data. And what the data is teaching us is that evangelism has largely been replaced with politics and partisanship in the American church. On top of that, evangelical Christians are often known for being more interested in making a point rather than making a difference. This is, this is the data.

And so every year, and some of you all go, "I don't know why you do this," but every year we go back and we say, "Hey, this is just sort of who we are." Sometimes it's called DNA, sometimes it's called culture, sometimes it's called whatever we decide the name is, but it's all the same. We have eight pillars here at Grace. They're culture pillars. We believe if, if we don't uphold those pillars, then everything that we do here... And we did this a long time ago. We met as a church staff, we went off, we prayed, we talked about it, we discussed it, and we all agreed that these were the things that made our church our church. And you can see them. They're hanging on the walls here. There's eight of them. You go back in the children's department, and they're done in a way that the children can understand them. And if you go into the other wing, there'll be the eight again. They are cultural pillars, and every year I take some time out. I don't always do all eight, but I take some time out to talk about who we are, because here's what we know: most churches, as they grow, change. They become something different than what they were. And if we don't talk about this, and if I don't lead, and if I don't share what we're, who we are, then, then people will start to decide for themselves. And this is true. If we don't define who we are, then someone else will do it for us.

And I'm just... I don't know, you can call me obstinate. You can call me a stick in the mud. You can call me whatever, but I'm not changing. You're going to have to get a new pastor. I'm going to have to be dead and gone before I'm going to change the way that I do things, because we're going to stay committed to the vision that God has given to this church. Because you see it all the time. You know, when I greet people, somebody comes and says, "I've been coming here for a few months. What this church really needs to do is..." And I'm like, "Man, it sounds to me that God is calling you to go plant a church, because we're not doing it." It is not because I'm just a nasty old man or anything like that. It's just I passionately feel that God has called the church to come and gather, to be equipped, and then to leave and to go evangelize, that seeking and saving the lost is the mission of the church. And I feel we're distracted. The American church, we're just distracted.

And so this week and next week, we're doing a two-part on this. I'm going to talk about one of our cultural pillars that's probably the embodiment of who I am as your pastor, probably is like the major sort of core of the ministry that I do, and it's also been the thing that's been the most impactful. Had so many people say, "You have just so helped me. You have changed my life. You've made such a difference." And then you have the other people, "You're not even a Christian," and "I'm leaving the church because you're terrible." And when that usually happens, I'm like, "That's pretty good, because with Jesus, they liked him or they hated him. So if you're probably getting both, you're probably doing the right thing."

So over the next couple of weeks, we're going to talk about the fact that around here, we "do Jesus." That's what we do around here. If you're new here and you're like, "What does this church do?" We do Jesus. And you go, "What does that mean?" Well, it means that we're not into agendas. Like, we're not trying to faction off and have all kinds of agendas—not saying that many of us, at times, don't have agendas, but that's not why we gather. That's not what we do. We're here to gather for Jesus. We're here to get equipped. We're here to get taught Scripture so we can be the people that God wants us to be, so that we can share our faith and we can see people come to know Jesus.

We're not into non-salvific theological debates. If it's something that's theological, that's fine. I love theology. I got a PhD in systematic theology. It's not like I don't love theology. I love theology, but I understand that there are certain theological things that have nothing to do with whether or not somebody's saved. So if you wonder why I don't want to argue with you after church whether or not Adam had a belly button, that's why. Okay? Just not. I'm just not going to do that.

We're not into party politics. I know so many people want to say, "Chip, you've got to, you've got to get involved in politics, and you've got to stand up." Listen, I'm just going to be honest with you as your pastor, you just cannot find—and I know there are books out there right now. I know there are books. I think they're heretical. That's what I think. Listen, listen, the Bible doesn't call the church to be a political entity. It calls us to be a spiritual entity, because this world is passing away, and it's our job to get as many people in this fallen world into eternity. That is the primary mission of the church. And we're not going to deviate from that.

And that doesn't mean—don't hear what I'm not saying—if you want to go vote, that's fine, and if you want to have opinions, that's fine. But that's not what we do here. This is not a political rally. This is a rally for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And I'll never, ever, ever stop that.

And I'll tell you, when you stand before God, and you say, "That old pastor, all he talked about was Jesus and winning souls," you take that argument to God. Okay? Take it to God. I'll take that all day long.

We're not into religion either—the kind that tries to tell you all the little do's and don'ts and all this stuff. "You got to do this, and you got to do that," and all these other rules. We believe that God wants to have a relationship with us. And so, we just want to do Jesus around here.

So, I want to take a passage of Scripture, and I want to diagnose a little bit of the problems and give you a lot of stuff to think about. Then, next week, I'm going to come back, and I'm going to be super practical. Because I'm actually going to teach you, no matter where you're at, no matter how timid you are, how you can actually, really, genuinely share your faith. So, it's gonna be really practical next weekend.

And I'm also going to read a poem that I read every single year—a little story that I read. So, it's gonna be practical and a poem. Bring all your people. Don't get mad at me this weekend—next week, it'll be better.

So here we go. We're going to look at a passage that you probably have read or you've heard somewhat, but I think you'll see it a little bit differently after we look at it. The passage is profound. It informs all the things that we do. It explains why we do what we do. It explains why Jesus came. It's deep.

This passage happens while Jesus is being batted back and forth between Caiaphas and Pilate. He's been arrested and is not far from being crucified and killed. I want to enter into the story because I want you to hear it, and I want you to really let this speak to you. Put down the walls and let the Word of God speak.

Pilate entered into his headquarters again. This is not the first interaction he's had with Jesus because he and Caiaphas are passing him back and forth. Nobody really wants to deal with Jesus. They look at him like, "This guy just doesn’t look like someone we need to be worried about." They can’t really figure out what’s so bad about him.

Pilate comes back in again and calls Jesus over. "Come here, man."

He calls him again and says, "Are you the King of the Jews? Just answer the question. Are you the King of the Jews?"

Why is that important? It’s important because, in the political world of Rome, there was one king, and that was Caesar. And if you claimed to be a king, then you were subversive, and they needed to get rid of you. That’s just the way they saw it. So the question is super important.

"Are you? Are you the King of the Jews?" Pilate asks.

Pilate doesn’t even want to be there. He doesn’t even want to deal with this. He even tries to wash his hands of the situation. He’s like, "Just, are you the King of the Jews? Just tell me. It would make my life so much easier if you’d answer my question."

And Jesus gives a profound answer—super profound. One that we would do well to listen to.

Jesus replies, "Do you say this on your own accord? Are you saying this because you’ve started to wonder who I am? Have you started to question why I’m here? I can answer that question for you if you’re really seeking. Do you ask because of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me? How did you come to ask this particular question? Because I can help you if I know where you’re coming from."

Pilate, ever the straight shooter, answers, "Am I a Jew? Do you think I care about your people and who you think is king and who isn’t? I have nothing to do with this. This has nothing to do with me. I’m not interested in you as a person. I’m interested in getting out of this mess and moving forward. I’m not a Jew. But your own nation and the chief priests delivered you over to me."

"What have you done? Man, what have you done? You don’t look the part. You don’t act the part of what we know insurrectionists to be like. You don’t act like that. You don’t look subversive. What have you done? Man, did you steal something from somebody? Did you do something to somebody’s wife? Like, what did you do?"

"Because, do you not understand, man? If you can come clean with me, if I can figure out you’re not a king, I can get you off."

"What have you done? What have you done, man?"

Jesus' answer is profound, and maybe we ought to lean in.

And my goodness, if we could get that stress out of our lives, maybe we would actually go do the very thing that we're called to do, which is to tell people about Jesus. Now listen to me, I'm going to, I know I'm going to, there are going to be people that get really mad about this. I get it. I'm not trying to be snarky. I'm not trying to give you a hard time. I'm trying to get you to think biblically. Don't ever walk out of here and say, "You know, Chip doesn't think we should vote." No, I think you should vote. You've got a civic privilege to vote. It's great. Go vote. Say we can't have opinions. No, you have opinions. Totally fine. There are certain things that are biblical. There's no question about it. But is that the call of the church? No, the call of the church is to evangelize the lost.

You see, you must not love the country. I love America. I don't want to go any other place. People be like, "Well, Chip, things were to move..." I didn't say that. You were reading, you're taking your garbage and reading it on me. I'm not saying that. I, I'm so happy when Lee Greenwood sings, "I'm proud to be an American." It has nothing to do with that. It has to do, though, that my soul and my allegiance is not to a country or to a group or to a certain, you know, party. My allegiance is to Christ, and it's through the lens of Jesus that I interpret everything. And so I'm going to tell you something. Some of you are going to get mad. I'm just going to tell you, but I'm telling you, you need to think about it, because if you think about it, it might cure some of the issues.

And listen to me, "Of the people, by the people, and for the people" doesn't work with the Bible at all. It doesn't work with Colossians 1:16. It doesn't work with Romans 11:36. Because the Bible says, "By Him all things were created: in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him." In Romans 11:36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things." Listen, you can think it's going to be of the people and by the people and for the people. And you can build your tower in Babel all the way up to where God says enough, because it's by Him and through Him and for Him, and because of Him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And you can, you can get mad at me. You can say whatever you want to say, but I'm going to tell you right now, I'm taking Jesus over anything this old fallen world can give to me. Period.

We just don't think biblically. We allow our culture to infuse the way we see the Bible, and we don't need to do that. And so we've got to decide, what is our message going to be? What are we going to say? You're using your words. What words are you going to use? Well, I can give you, I can tell you what the Bible says in places. Maybe you don't want to hear that. Paul goes into Corinth, pagan city, pagan government, corrupt place, bad laws, incredibly bad ethics, terrible morals. That's the best place in the world to go tell everybody how to live, right?

What does he do? Well, he tells you. When it came to you, brothers, when I came into Corinth, and there were no Christians, I didn't come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Oh, but Paul needed to stand up. "Chip, no, I determined to know nothing among you other than Jesus Christ and him crucified." But, but Chip, but Chip, "I determined to know nothing among you..." Because Paul knew something. He could have changed all of Corinth and made it all the way he wanted it to be, and not one more soul would have been in eternity. He knew the focus. He said, "I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message weren't plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

He knew that when he told people about Jesus, and that's all he said, and they came to faith, that's the power of God calling people. But if he would have been, "Hey, what about this issue? Don't you think about this issue? You know, the God that I serve is for this issue. Don't you want to be on this issue?" He might have had people convert to issues and not Jesus, confused Jesus and issues, confused Jesus and culture. And you go, "Oh, well, that couldn't happen." Well, I don't know. The Bible is pretty clear that there are a lot of people that are going to be deceived. They thought they knew Jesus, and they didn't know him.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, "Woe to me if I don't preach the gospel." Those are his words. The words out of his mouth are preaching the gospel, not all this other stuff. I mean, it makes me want to ask, and I'm not trying to be snarky, are we being discipled by cable news and talk radio instead of Bible reading and prayer? Because I'm going to tell you, whether you want to hear this or not, we aren't called to win arguments and elections in Scripture. We're called to win souls. That's what we're called to win. You may say, "Chip, you're passionate about this." I am, because 1% of the pastors in this country think we're doing a good job, because people aren't being converted. We're just running sheep through different churches. That pains me as your pastor, and I've got enough backbone to stand up here and tell you the way it is, whether you like it or not.

I never planted this church. We never started this church thinking we were going to be some large church. We started this church saying we're going to be faithful to Scripture. We're going to be a Bible-teaching fellowship. In my mind, I thought if we ever got to 300 people, we would be killing it. So if we go back to 300, I'm still killing it.

And fourth, what words are we going to use? I'm going to ask you what words you're going to use. Here's what Paul would say, "Far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." When thousands and thousands of Christians, hundreds of thousands of Christians are polled, "Why do you not share your faith?" Now listen, next week, I'm going to tell you how to share your faith, so don't go, "Oh man, no..." Next week, that's coming. I'm going to, I'm going to help you out practically how to share your faith. So don't, don't leave, don't, don't. You've got to come back next week and hear that. And I've got this great story that I read every year that you all love, so don't come back. It's going to be good. This one was terrible. The other one's going to be good, okay?

But this is why Christians say they don't share their faith. Church attenders don't really think their friends and neighbors are lost. Many Christians have simply lost their wonder for and about Jesus. We've made the church a place to retreat from the world, not a place to be renewed to reach the world. Many churchgoers have no non-believing friends. "Well, that's right, Chip. I don't drink, and I don't chew, and I don't run with those who do." But yet, and I want you to hear this, your neighbor may be dying apart from God. Get to know them. Many Christians simply don't care. I said at the beginning, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." We know that's not true. We know that words hurt. Our words are hurting the mission of the church in America.

And I hear so many Christians telling me that we're winning, or whatever we're doing, and I'm like, going, "Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that that's the case, folks." Because if you want to know if we're winning, the Bible tells us when we're winning. It says that on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls came to the church. You think God was concerned about the numbers? Well, he wrote the numbers down, but it wasn't the numbers it was the people. Well, but later, 5,000. Those are big numbers. Those are huge numbers. Why is that important? Because souls matter.

And I just, I just, I don't ask hardly anything from you all ever. I'm asking you, would you please take a moment and think about the way you use your words, and think about, are we really getting equipped, and are we really trying to evangelize, or, you know, just church sort of what it is. It's comfortable. We just want to whatever it is. Look, I love every one of you all. I don't love you enough to not tell you the truth, but I'm going to tell you there's no way in the world I can stand before God on judgment day and not say, "Hey, I talked about Jesus every time that I got up and spoke. I talked about the gospel, that He died for us and He rose again on the third day so that we could have eternal life, and I told people they need to go out and share their faith." I don't know how I lose on Judgment Day talking about those three things. They may not be what you want to hear from me, but they're going to be the things that I talk about. We're not changing here at all. I ain't changing.

And I know many of you all write me stuff, and you send me stuff and whatever. I just want you to know I'm not changing. We're going to do Jesus here at this church. We're going to stay focused on what we're doing here, because I truly believe with all of my heart, it is what the local church should be about